Thursday, 13 June 2013

Plenty to get stuck into today and we'll start with the news Marouane Fellaini would really like to move to London, so say his "friends" in the Daily Mirror. Can we read that as code for the Belgium international himself?

We all know because of The Times' interview with Everton chairman Bill Kenwright that the big haired midfielder has a £24m release clause for those clubs competing in the Champions League.

And it appears that Fellaini or his "friends" are encouraging someone to make a bid to activate the clause in his contract.

Now that should be Arsenal. I don't know many Gooners who wouldn't take Fellaini in a heart beat. But I wonder if the player really wants to come to us. Could he be using us to drum up interest from elsewhere?

The story first surfaced of our interest last Thursday night, hours before the deadline for season ticket renewals and ahead of Ivan Gazidis' Q&A with supporters. I thought the story was a bit far fetched, but it looks as though now there is genuine interest on the player's part to move from Merseyside.

But it also appears Arsenal are playing hard ball. They won't want to pay the release clause - especially if they are the only club in for the midfielder. And why should we? If there is only one team in for Fellaini and he wants to leave, the price should surely come down.

Anyway, I think there is legs to this deal and we're only at the beginning of it. Expect more developments in the coming days.

Meanwhile Arsene Wenger has been linked with another midfielder, this time France Under-21 international Gilbert Imbula, by the Daily Mirror The 20-year-old Guingamp midfielder is said to be keen on a move to England (of course he would be, we pay more!) but his club want around £8million to part with him this summer.

And another transfer story doing the rounds today is Everton's apparent interest in Swansea defender Ashley Williams, again according to the Daily Mirror. They report that Roberto Martinez is keen to be reunited with the Wales captain. But we are expected to make a bid for the Swansea star within the next 14 days.

Away from transfer speculation and Olivier Giroud has been speaking about his expectations for us for next season. And he says we can mount a title challenge, if we start the season well.

"If we start better than we did last season, we will compete for the title because we are used to playing together now.

"We have also improved as individuals — especially the newcomers such as Santi Cazorla, Lukas Podolski and me."

I think the end of season run in will really help us start the season with a bang. Going ten games unbeaten to over throw our local rivals should give us the right mental attitude and belief that we can go the distance next season and lift silverware.

And finally the weirdest transfer story failing has landed at the feet of former vice-chairman David Dein in the Daily Express. According to former Crystal Palace chairman Ron Noades, he spoke to Dein about us signing Wilfried Zaha. Noades said Arsenal weren't interested.

Now I'm no master detective, but Wikipedia tells me Noades was the Palace chairman until 1998 when he sold up. And if my memory serves me correct, Dein was ousted from the board in April 2006. So neither of these two men have any power at either Palace or Arsenal.

This story is quite bizarre because we all know Wenger did have interest in Zaha but he chose to sign for Manchester United. Anyway, I'm baffled why it's David Dein's fault we didn't sign Zaha.